This project is concerned with metal complexes, especially of Cr(III), with amino acids and simple peptides. The luminescence spectrum of many Cr(III) complexes consists of sharp lines representing one or two electronic transitions and associated vibronic structure. This vibronic structure gives us a vibrational spectrum of the ground state, similar to infrared or Raman spectroscopy, but with different selection rules. In addition, it is the metalligand vibrational modes which dominate the spectrum. This allows us to use sharp line luminescence to characterize the coordination environment, yielding information about the type of ligands coordinated, their geometrical arrangement, and even the chelating ring systems involved. This year we are concentrating on the vibrational and electronic properties of the metal to peptide nitrogen bond.